Hydrogen Isotopic Composition of Hornblendes From Active Volcanoes of Mexico

Horblendes (Hb) crystallize in water-rich magmas in magma chambers or in deeper zones. Isotopic composition of hydrogen in OH-groups of Hb represents the water isotopic composition of magmatic fluid or dissolved magmatic volatiles and therefore, is an isotopic characteristics of magmatic water. At lower vapor pressure in conduits and shallower magma chambers, Hb can decompose and loose water with significant isotopic effects. We measured hydrogen isotopic composition of hornblendes from modern lavas and pyroclastics of El Chichon, Colima and Popocatepetl volcanoes. Hornblendes from the last and previous pyroclastic flows of El Chichon are the more abundant mineral phases (after plagioclase), showing pleochroism from green to brown. They are relatively uniform in composition (close to magnesian hastingsite hornblende), without chemical variations between cores and rims. Using the Johnson and Rutherford (1989) calibration of the Al-in-hornblende geobarometer, the hornblendes show equilibrium with the melt at pressure of 4 kb that correspond to 12 km of depth. These pressure conditions likely represent the location of the magma chamber below El Chichon volcano, however, these pressure estimates need to be confirmed. The water content of all analyzed Hbs is 1.5-1.8 wt%, but may be higher due to a minor amount of impurities of pyroxenes which sometimes are difficult to separate from Hb. Hydrogen isotopic composition in 10 samples of Hb from El Chichon of different age and facies (pumice, lithic fragments in pyroclastics) was in a narrow range -40 to -37 permil V-SMOW. Such isotopic signature corresponds to so-called "andesitic" waters, i.e. waters from subduction-related magmas, The origin of these waters is suggested to be the recycled water from subducted oceanic sediments. The data for El Chichon volcano are in the range of the already known values for subduction-related magmas though the tectonic setting of El Chichon is more complicated. The measured isotopic ratios D/H of the least altered Hb from the 14 Ka Tutti-Frutti pyroclastic deposits of the Popocatepetl volcano and from the 1913 pyroclastics of Volcan de Colima (with H2O content > 1.5 wt%) are surprisingly "heavy", in the range -17 to -15 permil. More study and a larger collection of Hb are needed to interpret such high D/H ratios in Colima and Popocatepetl Hb, which are the heaviest ones ever measured in magmatic unaltered Hb.